IOI developer reveals biggest challenge facing accessibility in games today

Recently, we attended DevGAMM in Lisbon, where we got to hear from a bunch of interesting developers and faces within the gaming industry, including Joshua Flitcroft, technical accessibility designer at IO Interactive, who explained that while gaming has definitely improved when it comes to accessibility, there are still some big challenges in the way.

"I think probably the, maybe the biggest one is gamers without sight," Joshua said, describing the biggest challenge developers face today. "I think that's something that we're still probably going to be working on and working out how we can do, especially like with open world games, so that we can still give players the freedom of approach and let them choose where they want to go and what they want to do, as opposed to just telling them and showing them like, no, you're going to go this way."

To help make games more accessible during development, Flitcroft says it's all about making sure the awareness is there. "That has been our biggest push at the moment is having presentations, bringing in consultants, people with lived experiences to talk about what gaming is to them and why it's important and really try and look at accessibility through that way of focusing on getting more people aware of it and thinking about it in their sort of day to day as well."

Flitcroft also talks about some big steps in gaming accessibility over the years, from Pokémon to The Last of Us: Part II in the full interview below. Check it out!